The Wise Men

We are wrapping up our series this week entitled “The Supporting Cast.” We have spent these six weeks looking at how through those associated with the story of Jesus’ before he began his ministry, we are able to receive insights concerning Jesus while also being able to find ways for us to improve our own life journey with Jesus.

This is Epiphany Sunday. It is when we focus on the wise men that came from afar to give their gifts to Jesus. Our scripture is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 verses 1-12.

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:

6 “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Please pray with me…

This scripture on the wise men can often lead us to more questions than answers. How did these guys hear about a Jewish Messiah? Did they follow a real star? Where did they come from? And so on and so on…It is for this reason that this is one of the most talked about scriptures by Biblical scholars. The text leaves us with many questions without many answers.

What we should not worry about is focusing directly on those questions. Our focus should be on what their words and actions can say to us today. We begin by focusing on their arrival to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the capitol of Judaism so it would make since that if you were looking for the King of the Jews you would start there. You could assume that even if he wasn’t there the people there would at least know where he was located.

We have the Jewish religious authority show us that they knew that their God would give them a Messiah. They were also confident on where he would be born. They quote from 2nd Samuel and from Micah concerning the coming of the Messiah. They knew the Messiah would be born in the town of Bethlehem of Judah.

They also offer us another important piece of information. It is that out of Bethlehem “will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.’” Why is this important, it shows us that they knew of the role that Jesus would eventually play.

The problem the Jewish people of the time faced is that they were focusing on the idea of a ruler, a conquering Messiah, who would save the people from their oppressors. Matthew makes sure that we know that they were ignoring the fact that scripture also points out that the Messiah will be a shepherd king.

What we can receive from this bit of information is that the Bible offers us different ways of looking at scripture and depending on the scriptures you focus on you may end up recognizing what scripture is saying in a different way than someone else.

A different theology does not always mean that someone is right and someone else is wrong. There are very few things that need to be believed. They would be God the Father created us. Jesus is the son of God. He came down to earth to die so that our sins could be forgiven. There may be a few other areas I am missing but overall, figuring out how you believe the rest is up to you.

When we turn to the wise men’s visit to Jerusalem, I would think that they would have been surprised by the response they received. These men are not Jewish but yet they search for the king of the Jews while the Jews seem to not even know of this king’s existence and if anything, they seem scared that the wise men are asking.

The Jews are so worried about trying to get along that they are afraid of the consequences of having their Messiah be born other than focusing on the fact that the Messiah was born. This could be for a couple of reasons. The first is that they believed the wise men were going to visit a false Messiah. There had been false Messiahs before who would stir up the people and would eventually have to be put into their place and killed along with their disciples.

The other is that they are afraid that they are not ready. I have talked before about how they would make rules to make sure that they wouldn’t break God’s commands. They had a fear that if the Messiah came and they weren’t ready than the Messiah would also destroy them.

Whatever the reason they were not interested in seeing the Messiah themselves. They offer to Herod where the Messiah was to be born but they don’t seem interested in going with the wise men to see him.

While the Jews are afraid, the wise men choose to go and worship the King of the Jews. We have no reason to fear God. God loves each one of us and wants to be in a relationship with us. We need to be like the wise men and want to be close to Jesus.

We do this through the ways mentioned last week when Gerald focused on Anna. We need to desire to worship God, to pray and listen to God, and to discover other means that allow us to personally get closer to God.

What can sometimes stop us from doing these things to our fullest capabilities is similar to the reasons the Jews were afraid. We either don’t think we are good enough or that we won’t do it right. I don’t know of anywhere in the New Testament that someone was not good enough to get to know Jesus. Jesus spent time with and healed those within Jewish society who were outcast and were not to be associated with. Jesus loves you as you are and if you are willing to accept him as your Lord and Savior than he will always accept you as a child of God.

We also will choose not to try to do things that can allow us to be closer to God because we are afraid that we don’t do it right or someone does it better than us. There is no wrong way in which we can connect with Jesus. There is no wrong way to become closer to the one who loves you just as you are. We just have to remove our fear and decide that being closer to God is more important than our doubts and fears.

My reasoning for not following my calling or working on my relationship with God was actually both of these…(Explain)

You are good enough, God wants to be as close to you as you will allow him.

Verse 12 offers us another important insight, it says that “having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” The wise men had a choice. They could have listened to the earthly king and returned and told him so that he could also worship the child, but through a dream they are told that this was the wrong choice so they chose not to do that.

God communicates with us in many different ways. For some it may be in a dream for others it may be a gut feeling. Others it might be someone saying something to you that you recognize as the direction that God wants you to go. Whatever it is when we receive it we should be like the wise men and follow it. We shouldn’t look back at the earthly answers and recognize that when God is speaking to us it is important that we respond.

There is a book by Bruce Wilkinson called “The Dream Giver.” It is about a boy named Ordinary who became tired of living life as he was supposed to. He ends up going after the dream that God had given him despite facing obstacles such as those around him telling him to just keeping living life the same way. Fear of what was out there and a lack of understanding on how he would tackle some obstacles he faced. In the end he continues going with the help of the “Dream Giver” and realizes his dream.

We need to take the same steps. We need to be willing to accept the dream that God has given us and go for it no matter what. It may not be easy but it is through accepting the dream that we can fulfill our calling.

I went through Emmaus with a man who was a very successful business man. He was there because his wife had gone through Emmaus and wanted him to also experience it. If you notice I am not saying he was there because he wanted to and at the beginning that was evident. But as time went on and he heard the messages and recognized the love offered to him by the community he realized that God had more for him than his business venture. He had a greater adventure for him.

This man ended up starting to help with the youth program at his church. He would later sell his business and end up becoming the paid youth staff person. He now has accepted a youth position out of state. These things happened because he was willing to accept the dream given to him by God and run with it.

The dream God has given you may not be as big as dropping everything and becoming a youth leader. But no matter what it is, it is important to God and we need to be willing to take the steps to fulfill it. God will be with you along the way always there to pick you up when you fall and to encourage you to keep the faith.

As I stated at the beginning one of the questions often asked is how did these men know about the King of the Jews and be looking for a star that would lead them to him? There are many possible answers to this question. What I believe along with some Bible scholars is that these gentlemen came from Babylon and that the people there originally heard about the King of the Jews from Daniel.

The story of Daniel is one that many of you may already know. When Babylon conquered Judah in 605 BC the king of Babylon took some of the Israelites to serve him in Babylon. One of those men was Daniel. When they got to Babylon they were offered food but Daniel and a few others refused as to not defile themselves. God also allowed them to receive greater knowledge which led to them becoming part of the king’s wise men.

Daniel and his three comrades, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego became important people to the king but the king had a golden image made of himself and ordered everyone to bow before it. When the three men who were with Daniel refused they were thrown into a fiery furnace to die. Instead the fire did not harm them. God had protected them.

More and more people became upset with the power that Daniel had and they talked the king into ordering a decree that no one in the kingdom could pray to another God. The men caught Daniel praying and told the king to sentence him to death by being thrown into the lion’s den. God saved Daniel and afterwards this is what the king said…

25 Then King Darius wrote to all the nations and peoples of every language in all the earth:

“May you prosper greatly! 26 “I issue a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. “For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. 27 He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

It is from this decree that we can see that the people of Babylon would have heard about the God of the Jews. It is my belief that after these events Daniel would have told the other wise men about his God and given them insights into how to know when the King of the Jews would be born. They therefore saw the sign and went to see Jesus.

This is important to us because it shows us the importance of letting others know about how Jesus has impacted our lives. How he loves all people and wants everyone to be in a relationship with him. When we do this we have no idea the impact that this may have on future generations. In the case of Daniel we have men that were told his message from others coming to see Jesus over 600 years after he had been taken captive. This should show us that telling one person about Jesus can lead to generations of believers.

Please pray with me…